Hunt for Humor

Laughter: Lesson 5

Verbal Irony

Earth by John Hall Wheelock

"A planet doesn't explode of itself," said drily

The Martian astronomer, gazing off into the air –

"That they were able to do it is proof that highly

Intelligent beings must have been living there.”

Verbal Irony cont.

The poem “Earth” by John Hall Wheelock is an example of verbal irony. Basically, a Martian is looking at earth and saying that a planet cant blow up by itself. It then predicts that human beings were intelligent enough to invent something so powerful, most likely nuclear bombs. The irony is that the humans weren’t so intelligent because they blew up their own planet. The device in this poem made me laugh.

Sarcasm

HEMPSTEAD, NY—Highly emotional in the wake of last night’s town-hall-style debate, a tearful Mitt Romney called a press conference this morning to “come clean” about having a rare, little-understood disease known as Shuttlesworth Syndrome, a condition that prevents its victims from sitting quietly on stools anytime they are repeatedly told to do so. “As a sufferer of this rare disorder, being told to sit down and shut up—particularly when a stool is involved—only provokes in my central nervous system a violent overreaction that forces me to behave in the exact opposite manner,” Romney told reporters, his voice cracking with emotion as he revealed his secret to the world. “Without meaning to, I reflexively stand up, stride forward, and continue trying to speak—doing so even, and especially, when one or more people are instructing me to stop talking immediately and go back to my stool. It is a truly debilitating condition that I have battled all my life.” Romney said additional symptoms of the syndrome include an inability to maintain a convincing human smile, inexplicable reversals of previously stated policy positions, and an impaired ability to chuckle without sounding like a deranged maniac.

Sarcasm cont.

This article is an example of sarcasm. The author is making fun of how Mitt Romney wouldn’t stay seated at the debates. The author also makes fun of other things Mitt Romney does, for example how he smiles and laughs. The whole time the author is trying to sound serious and convincing by stating that Romney has a disease called “Shuttlesworth Syndrome.” I thought it was quite funny that he was making fun of him but kept the story serious.

Situational Irony http://youtu.be/Nm-1xvWibt0

An example of Situational Irony is the song “Irony” by Alanis Morissette. In the song she sings, “An old man turned ninety-eight, he won the lottery and died the next day,” What is expected is that he uses the money to live the last days of his life happily, but what really happens is that the old man dies the next day. The whole song involves situations that have irony in them so I thought the whole song was pretty funny.

Dramatic Irony This Advertisement for the movie

Jaws is an example of Dramatic irony.

In the picture there’s a person swimming

and a huge shark swimming up to attack.

The swimmer is not aware of the huge shark

coming up to him, but the person looking

at the ad is fully aware. I don’t really think

this is funny. I think it’s more of a scary ad.

Hyperbole

This greeting card is an example of a hyperbole. Basically, the boy on the card is saying he would do anything for you. He is exaggerating. I thought this card was very funny because of the choice of words and exaggeration.

Understatement

The comic strip is an

example of understatement.

In the comic strip it shows 2

men out in the wilderness

with one fly swatter. They

find a huge monster fly and

they think they should’ve

brought another fly swatter.

Even with another fly swatter,

they wouldn’t be able to kill the monster fly. I think this comic strip is really funny because of the understatement.

Malapropism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxmkiy9txBE

In this commercial for Orbit gum, there is a lot of malapropism. They change words that are supposed to be swear words to words that sound familiar. I thought this commercial was hilarious because of the words they chose to say.

Pun

“I work as a baker because I knead dough.”

The quote is an example of a pun. There are two meanings to it. For example, he works as a baker because he kneads dough. And he works as a baker because he needs dough, or money. I thought it was funny because of how the words “knead” and “need” sound alike but give the sentence a different meaning.

Oxymoron

The picture is an example of an oxymoron. It’s a sign showing where the health center is located. But the name of the health center is Death Valley, which is the opposite of healthy. I thought it was funny because of

the two contradictory

words, “death” and

“health.”